12.14.2016

Vandals hang noose in Southeast Asian youth center

So this keeps happening. Over the weekend, a youth support center serving the Southeast Asian community in Providence, Rhode Island was broken into and vandalized, with a noose hung from the ceiling.

Sometime between Sunday afternoon and Monday morning, someone broke into the offices of Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM). According to Executive Director Sarath Suong, chairs were found stacked on top of each other, scissors and rulers arranged weirdly, all the drawers opened, two knives stabbed into a table, and a rope fashioned into a noose hanging from the ceiling.

Some of this could be written off as mischief -- the chairs, drawers, scissors, etc. But the knives and noose? There is no other way to interpret this, and the break in -- and the message it sends -- has to be taken seriously.

"Maybe it was a prank, but IT IS NOT funny," Suong said in his Facebook post. "I don't think it's a joke, I think we were sent a CLEAR message." He also offered a clear message back to the perpetrators:

"FUCK YOU. YOU WILL NOT INTIMIDATE US, YOU WILL NOT STEER US AWAY FROM OUR MISSION, YOU WILL NEVER DAMPEN OUR SPIRIT. YOU HAVE ONLY MOTIVATED US EVEN MORE. WE WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT FOR JUSTICE AND DEFEND OUR COMMUNITY, OUR FAMILIES, AND OUR PEOPLE."

Providence Youth Student Movement was founded in 2001. According to its website, PrYSM "mobilizes queer Southeast Asian youth, families, and allies to build grassroots power and organize collectively for social justice."